#Newton south high school full

#Newton south high school full

$60 at the door.įriday, November 28th, 2014 (multiple event dates, click here for full details)īrighton Beer Garden386 Market St.Brighton, Massachusetts 02135 “My parents don’t know that much about our local officials like mayors and governors, so I thought this is really, really cool because it gives people like my parents the opportunity to feel more involved in our community.Yummy food, cash bar, great tunes. “Our votes are what makes actual policy changes in our community, especially on a local level,” Krishnamoorthy said. Kaveri Krishnamoorthy, a sophomore at Newton South and new general member of The Polling Place, said she, too, saw a need for accessible voter information, especially for people like her parents who may not know where to find it. “I know some of the people in local politics - they’re very passionate people who really care about what they’re doing - and it just disappointed me, the fact that these voices of these passionate people aren’t being heard.” “There were a bunch of names on there that I didn’t really recognize for all these different races,” Ferrara said. “And probably not something that we wanted to be just a one-and-done.”Įthan Ferrara, The Polling Place’s national director of research, said his passion for the nonprofit began when he saw his dad voting and was surprised by the number of local candidates. “I think we realized that this was kind of a valuable mission,” Shembekar said. That election coverage, along with an outpouring of positive feedback, propelled the organization to build a network of students nationwide including in Newton. In a month, the website received 20,000 views, said Madhura Shembekar, The Polling Place’s co-founder and director of outreach. The Polling Place initially served as an information platform for Arizona voters before the 2020 primary elections, when co-founder Karsen Wahal said he would travel to “the fifth page of Google” before finding relevant facts about candidates. In the process of identifying and cataloguing political material, Malihi said the group makes sure to use “primary and secondary sources” in order to build an accurate database of Massachusetts elections.Įventually, they hope to expand to statewide elections and partner with other schools so students are able to cover elections. The Newton South students did a dry run this fall before Tuesday’s election, when candidates in Newton faced off for mayor, City Council, and School Committee.Īs the Newton South chapter grows its team before the next election, Dror and Malihi said they are looking for more student researchers, who are tasked with finding a given candidate’s background, political affiliation, “top issues” - such as education, infrastructure, and healthcare - endorsements, and more. High school and college students run the Polling Place and its individual chapters, meaning young people - even those not yet eligible to vote - have direct involvement in their state and local elections, Malihi said.

“I think this is one way that we’re not only addressing the problem of access to voter information, but we’re also addressing the problem of literal engagement with politics and stuff, which is pretty special.” “Being able to inform people on their candidates is the first step toward taking down the institutional barriers and the systemic barriers to actually making that change,” Malihi said. However, college students smashed previous voting records in 2020, casting ballots in record numbers and perhaps signaling a surge in civic engagement as Gen Z comes of age, according to a national college voting study published in October by Tufts University. Historically, people age 18 to 29 have been least likely to vote, according to the United States Election Project. Malihi said the organization is seeking to bring youth into the political conversation by providing them with factual, concise information. Students research elections and candidates, fact-check the information, and upload it to the website, which features an interactive map of the country. “I realized that while researching, it was really hard to find organized and accurate information on the candidate I was working with, or her opponent.”įounded during the pandemic by five students in Arizona, The Polling Place is a nonpartisan, student-run voter information platform with 12 established state chapters and over 130 members. “I had just worked in politics on a campaign,” Dror said. Dror said there’s a need for thorough, reliable voter information, and students are up for the challenge. Researching candidates in local elections can be tedious, Dror said, and an internet search can lead to few relevant or helpful results. The Polling Place aims to provide access where there is often very little.